Russ College Awards

Bill Kandel, Senior, Mechanical Engineering

Athens, OH 14 May 2012 – This past weekend I had the honor to attend the annual engineering student awards. It was nice to see so many fellow students who I know work so hard at what they do receive recognition from their professors and faculty in front of their families and friends. It was a fun night full of good-hearted jokes and witty responses. Their awards ranged widely, a lot of them were academically bases, while others were bases on co-ops, leadership or service to the individual’s respective department.
I was honored to receive a special award for dedication and service to mechanical engineering department. It is really nice to see how much the departments really take notice of students, not only how they look on a piece of paper, the departments really take the time to get to know you as an individual and because of that are able to give out special awards in regard to leadership and service. Yet another reason I am glad to be a Bobcat.

Cutler Scholarships

Annye Driscoll,
Senior, Computer Science

Athens, OH 3 May 2012 – One of my jobs is as a webmaster for the Cutler Scholars program. That program is one of the most prestigious and rewarding scholarship programs at OU; students are rewarded with tuition and living expenses, and in return are expected to make global impact (through volunteer, business, and education experiences that cover the globe) and exhibit exceptional academic and behavioral performance.
The Cutler Scholars program has suddenly become very relevant to the Russ College of Engineering and Technology; this year, the program is proud to announce a new scholarship designated exclusively for an outstanding student who has already been accepted by the Russ College of Engineering and who intends to pursue an engineering degree. The administration at Russ College has worked closely with those at Cutler Scholars (it’s cool to see my jobs overlap!) to nominate students, collect and filter applicants, select and interview finalists, and then to finally choose the new scholar.

The Robe/Russ Legacy-Cutler Scholarship is named after two incredible families in recognition of their service and support to the college of engineering.

Dick Robe was dean of the engineering college for 16 years, spent more than 40 years in academia, and lists one of his major accomplishments as participating in the education of more than 10,000 students in his time at OU! Robe has been unfailingly dedicated not only to engineering, but also to the education of new engineers. Though he is retired from academia, his support (and that of his wife, Ellie) continues through endowments which fund scholarships like this one.

You probably recognize the name “Russ”, since it’s the name of our college! Dr. Fritz Russ graduated from the College of Engineering in 1942 and with his wife, Dolores, they began their own company, Systems Research Laboratories, which became extremely successful and very influential among research firms. With that success, the Russes contributed more than $124 million to the Russ College–a gift that is the largest donation given to any public college of engineering in the United States.

The Truth About Professors

Jessica Borer,
Senior, Electrical Engineering

Athens, OH 15 March 2012 – Every time a student fills out a course evaluation for an engineering professor, they have the chance of nominating them for the award of Outstanding Professor. The Engineering Ambassadors get the privilege of interviewing the nominees from each program. Not only did this give me a chance to meet professors from other majors but I learned quite a bit about the different roles a professor has. Obviously professors have to make lesson plans and grade our homework and exams but they also need to do research in their specializations. Many of them are also involved with numerous other activities: they have administrative roles within the college, are advisors for university groups, and on top of all this they all have a group of students that they are advisors to personally. They’re just as busy as we are.

One of the questions in the interview process was how they balance all their different roles. The amazing thing about Ohio University is that every single professor we asked said that teaching is their number one priority and all their other responsibilities come after that. This is apparent in almost every class I’ve taken here. Every professor tries to make sure that every student knows they are more than welcome to come to their office any time and ask questions they have about the class or anything else they may be wondering about. OU Professors try their hardest to make sure the students get everything they need to succeed not only in their class but in college. They are a big part of what makes Ohio University so great for undergraduate students.

Dinner with Dr. Leroy Hood

Lingchong Mai, Senior, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Athens, OH 24 February 2012 – Last night, I was one of 10 Engineering Ambassadors who had a wonderful chance to have dinner with Dr. Hood Leroy, the Russ Prize winner of 2011.

Dr. Hood’s research areas include molecular biotechnology, immunology, genomics, DNA sequencing, where he developed a systems approach to studying these topics. He got his PHD from Caltech, and MD from John-Hopkins. He is one of only 10 people in the world to be elected to National Academy of Science, National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine. In addition to being an amazing scientist, he is also talented in business. He has helped to establish 14 famous biotechnology companies including Institute of System Biology, Amgen, Applied Biosystems.

Dr. Hood was very nice and pleasant to talk with. During the whole night he shared a lot of his early experience as a student in Caltech, his interests and opinion towards the research topics, and his attitude towards the career. I still remember that when he talked about his idea of commercializing the DNA sequencing was rejected by the president of Caltech, he did not give up. He said, if you think an idea is right, you should stick to it, and do your best to carry it out. Then he tried to persuade the instrument manufacturing companies to actually make DNA sequencing instruments. He got approval from the president of a company and got funding for the project. However, the guy who actually was in charge of the project disliked Dr. Hood and he directly talked to the top manager without letting Dr. Hood in, and showed a negative attitude and refused to cooperate, which finally led to the failure of the project. Dr. Hood said: “From the case, I learned a lession that if you really want to bring an idea into business, you have to persuade the top guy, but on the other hand, don’t just leave out the mid-level manager.”

Dr. Hood also shared his funny story of meeting and travelling with Bill Gates; his opinion to the president election and political issues; and his early experience of learning foreign languages. He also discussed with us about our future career and the impression of our majors, the Russ College, and Ohio University. This was a very enjoyable, impressive, and wonderful night.